Nick Jerwood wins Viper 640 World Championship

Published on February 23rd, 2018

Applecross, Australia (February 23, 2018) – Australians Nick Jerwood, sailing with Brian DeVries and Matt Jerwood, completed their victory today at the Schweppes Viper 640 World Championship 2018, conducted by Western Australia’s South of Perth Yacht Club on the Swan River.

The Jerwood/de Vries family combination is well known at Australian Sailing headquarters, where Nia Jerwood and Monique de Vries are Australian representatives in the 470 class. They jumped back to 420’s in January to claim the World Women’s title in that class, and this time it is their parents in the spotlight. Nick, Nia’s father and a former world champion in the Flying Fifteen class, teamed up with her brother Matt and Monique’s father Brian for the win.

Justin Scott (USA) repeated his success at last year’s Worlds by finishing second with two third placings in the last two races today. The American stated at the start of the campaign that he came to Perth expecting a top five finish, so he would have been delighted with his performance. Sailing with young local guns Conor Nicholas and Luke Elliot, the combination improved steadily throughout the regatta, with no worse than a third place in any of the final six races.

Match racer Keith Swinton, originally from Perth but resident these days in the USA, held down second place until the final day, bombing out with an early start in the last race of the series and allowing Scott to relegate his team to third.

Conditions were difficult for both competitors and officials today. The forecast of strong winds did not materialize and instead winds shifted between 140 and 190 degrees for some time this morning before finally settling enough to allow racing to proceed after a long delay.

Wind strength never reached ten knots and it was a brave skipper who dared to stray out to the corners of the course in either of today’s races and the rewards went to those who worked the shifts down the middle.

Racing at the 2018 Viper 640 World Championship was from February 19 to 23 with a layday on February 21.

Final Results (Top 10 of 25; 14 races, 2 discards)